


Restoring Your Name

by WolfesPuppies



Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: Gen, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Torture, Research, Trauma, Wish Fulfillment, on both mine and wolfes part, the tags make it seem like a lot worse than it is, wolfe is not okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:35:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24277486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfesPuppies/pseuds/WolfesPuppies
Summary: Khalila, in her work as Archivist, finds the previous one didn't get rid of everything he said he did.Or, Khalila gives Wolfe his work back.
Relationships: Niccolo Santi/Christopher Wolfe
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Restoring Your Name

**Author's Note:**

> This is pure wish fulfilment! I wanted Wolfe to get his work back, and so he does.!

Santi has been in a strange mood all day. Wolfe glances at him for what seems like the thousandth time as they walk down the hallway to Khalila’s office, but his love’s face is inscrutable, no indication of what he’s thinking. This meeting with Khalila is unusual too; they normally see her for their fortnightly meal, but apart from that she’s too busy with her duties in her new role. Santi sees her more often in his official capacity, but this isn’t that.

Khalila welcomes them into her office, and there’s tea and small talk for a few minutes, but she’s acting as strange as Santi, and Wolfe has had enough. He leans back in his chair, crosses his arms and says “Out with it.”

The other two feign ignorance for half a second but neither of them can hold on to it for very long. Santi nods at Khalila, and she starts to talk, glancing at a small pile of Blanks on her desk as she does.

“I was doing some research the other day, looking for some books I can’t find, and saw some irregularities in the archiving. An entire room, not on the official record, only available to me as Archivist. I was curious, so I went looking, and I found it. An entire room, full of shelves.”

Wolfe can tell she’s putting off saying what she wants, but also that she’s getting close to the point, and gestures for her to continue. He can’t imagine why it has both her and Santi in this odd mood.

“It was all work that has been deleted from the Codex. A personal Black Archives almost.”

Ah. Now he understands. There’s a faint buzzing in Wolfe’s ears, and he leans forward before he’s registered it, hardly daring to hope, not daring to speak. His hands tremble.

Khalila pushes a Blank towards him a little. “There was an entire shelf labelled Christopher Wolfe.”

Wolfe reaches out to the Blank with a shaking hand, scarcely able to believe what he’s hearing. He opens a page at random. It’s one of his early works, an article only a few pages long on differential calculus. He can see at least three mistakes immediately and the prose is inelegant, but it’s _his._ He looks up as he registers Khalila is talking again.

“-today, all rights and benefits given to a senior gold band Scholar are restored to you. Your work is searchable again, and there are no restrictions on the research you are allowed to carry out.”

No restrictions. Rights and benefits. Searchable. The words ring in Wolfe's ears but he can't be sure he's hearing them right. He _can't_ be hearing them right. The Archivist and the Artifex and Qualls had been very clear on the matter, and all three had lectured Wolfe at length about it. His work was deleted – except it wasn't, it's there on the desk in front of him, all of it. He was only permitted to search for a small section of books, ones useful in his role as teacher, but that was it. If the first isn't true any more, logic follows this must now be a falsehood too. It's all _too much_ , and when a hand takes his, Wolfe clings on like it's a lifeline, vaguely aware of a quiet conversation happening, and then footsteps, a door opening and closing, but he can't parse why or where or who.

“Chris?”

Nic's voice brings Wolfe back to himself with a bump. He's in Khalila's office, but she isn't there anymore –  _oh, that must have been the door_ – and he's gripping Nic's hand tight. Wolfe forces himself to let go, pushes down the guilt when he sees Nic flexing his fingers.

“I'm okay.” For once, it doesn't taste like a lie. “It was just-.”

“A lot.” Nic supplies, and Wolfe nods. “We weren't sure how to tell you.”

“How long have you known?” Not an accusation, just curiosity.

“She told me three days ago. She found the work last week.”

Wolfe nods. Picks up the Blank again, flicks through the pages. It looks like there's more than one work in each, which makes sense – the pile isn't big enough for each Blank to be a separate work. Chronological order, by the looks of it. Works he'd thought were lost. Works he'd been  _told_ were lost. Wolfe has long since come to terms with what prison took from him, but the loss of his work was the hardest. And now it's back.

* * *

It's two weeks before Wolfe finds the courage to search for something he had previously been barred from accessing – one of Leonardo da Vinci's journals. There were two volumes, and he'd never been barred from the first, which focused primarily on colour, shading, anatomy and other artistic principles. The second volume, with notes on architecture and warfare, was clearly considered too dangerous for Wolfe to be able to access, and so when he had tried to request it a few months after his release, it had come back with a simple 'request denied'. He was visited by the Archivist the next day and told in no uncertain terms what he was and was not permitted to read anymore.

The journal comes back within a few seconds of requesting it, and the knot of uncertainty in Wolfe's chest loosens its grip.

It's a month after that when Wolfe makes an appointment at the Reading Room to access some originals. He doesn't make it, instead spends the day curled in a ball in their bedroom as he tries and fails to ward off one of the worst panic attacks he's ever had.

He tries again a week later, and is rather more successful this time – although anything past opening the front door is successful compared to his first attempt.

* * *

Wolfe goes to the front desk in the Reading Room to confirm his appointment, and after confirming which works he wishes to view, goes to find a table. His old favourite is free, but it lies in the centre of the room and would place his back to the door, and the very notion sends sparks of fearpanic _no_ up his spine, and so Wolfe picks one at the side of the room against the wall, where he can only be approached from two sides. It's still pleasant enough, with good light and a comfortable chair, and he soon settles in and opens his his Codex to find the article he wants. It's nothing major, a rewrite of one of his own works based on new research, but the novelty of searching for his own name and have it come up still hasn't worn off. The novelty of being able to rewrite his own works still hasn't worn off. The originals he requested are delivered, and Wolfe starts to work.

Wolfe's Codex chimes with a message and he surfaces from the book with a scowl, only to notice the room is significantly emptier than it had been, and when he checks the time it's more than five hours later. The ache in his back that is now making itself known testifies to the time he's spent hunched over the desk. The message is from Nic, asking if he's done, and it's so familiar, a call-back to a time before Rome, before the press and everything else. He pens a quick reply before packing up his work and signalling to one of the staff that he's finished with the originals. Standing, he stretches out the aches in his muscles before leaving the Reading Room to find Nic stood outside. This too is familiar, so much so that Wolfe finds words coming to him automatically. 

“Let's go for dinner.” he suggests, a common thing for them to do after long days at the barracks and the books. “Dinner, and then take me home.”

Nic understands the suggestion, and grins, eyes sparkling as he sketches a half bow. “I am yours to command, Scholar.”

Scholar. Yes. Wolfe is a Scholar once more.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to read Wolfe's first attempt at going to the Reading Room, find it [here!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890434/chapters/52249429)


End file.
